Blog

This year I’ve had a few people ask for tips on scouting for common stalk borer. The larvae are moving from brome to corn throughout Iowa and it is a good time to scout for timely management. Thanks to the help of Warren Pierson, coordinator of the FEEL, I have some photos to share.

Hope this helps with your scouting efforts this season!

Join the ISU Weed Science Program at the 2019 Herbicide Research and Demonstration Program Field Day on Thursday, June 27!

I’ve been hearing about and seeing a variety of caterpillars in seedling crops this week. In soybean, you notice thistle caterpillars feeding and making webbed cavities from the leaves. They can be easy to find in early-vegetative soybean but rarely build up to economic populations. Read more about thistle caterpillars in this ICM News article. 

Miscanthus has to be harvested all at once and must be stored for later use every season.  Standing miscanthus fields are harvested with a forage chopper or self-propelled mower conditioner (as previously discussed in our Miscanthus harvest concludes! blog) and therefore handled and stored in two different ways, i.e. Ag-Bag or bales. Storing miscanthus in Iowa is easily accomplished using proven methods readily available to any size producer.

Mother Nature was more cooperative this past week, allowing planting and other field activities like cutting and putting up hay, sidedressing, and herbicide applications to occur. According to the June 10, 2019 USDA-NASS Crop Progress and Condition Report, approximately 93% of the expected corn crop and 70% of the expected soybean has been planted.

This #Plant19 season has been a tough and complicated one, filled with difficult deadlines, unconventional practices and budget constraints. And while it might be seem easier to just give up, it's seasons like these that teach us important lessons about farming, and give us the opportunity to develop new crop management strategies and solutions.

#plant19 has been a year to remember, and not necessarily in a good way. A couple of days ago we talked about anthracnose leaf blight on corn. Although we suggested there was little reason to fret, there have been some conversations around whether to apply a fungicide at growth stage V5, to mitigate the disease and perhaps stalk rot later on.  In addition, you’ll be spraying an herbicide, so why not throw a fungicide into the tank as well?

Corn planting has been start and stop, and generally delayed this spring.

Mother Nature has not been a friend to farmers this spring, making the 2019 planting season a challenging one to say the least. According to the June 3, 2019 USDA-NASS Crop Progress and Condition Report, approximately 80% of the expected corn crop has been planted and 58% has emerged across the state. On the soybean side, approximately 41% of the expected soybean has been plated and 17% has emerged across the state.

Summer trip?! Undergraduate students commonly take trips during the summer that consists of hiking in the mountains, relaxing on the beaches, or experiencing a new culture in a foreign country. However, one group of students from Furman University in Greenville, SC broke the mold and chose something different. Dr.

Farmers across the state took advantage of the little dry spell that occurred last week. Approximately 70% of the expected corn crop and 27% of the soybean crop in Iowa has been planted according to the May 20 USDA-NASS Crop Progress and Condition Report. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists share reports on what they are seeing and hearing in their respective regions across the state with field conditions and planting progress.

We have always told extension clients and students that the best tool for identifying an unknown weed is a good book, other than finding somebody who already knows what the weed is.  We never thought much of the early weed ID apps that were developed for mobile devices. 

“Rain, rain, go away come again another day.” This nursery rhyme seems to be an appropriate theme song for how the weather has been this spring. The wet weather has been a major challenge for getting any fieldwork completed across the state. According to the most recent USDA-NASS Crop Progress Report, 48% of Iowa's expected corn crop has been planted and 13% of Iowa's expected soybean crop has been planted.

As everything greens up, we often receive photos of mystery plants for identification.  Typically, I get a wide range of species via email or text message.  This spring, more than any I can recall in recent history, I’ve received many photos of the same species:  purslane speedwell (Veronica peregrina).

According to a recent State Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act Issues Research and Evaluation Group (SIFIREG) Dicamba Work Group guidance document and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Pesticide Bureau, only certified applicators can mix and handle the following dicamba products:

Have you been driving in rural eastern Iowa lately? You might have noticed those choppers and wagons a few weeks ago harvesting miscanthus fields, but what have you seen most recently? Planters! You might have noticed that they don’t look like the grain planters most of us are used to seeing.  Miscanthus x giganteus is a perennial grass that does not produce a viable seed; therefore, planting methods are different compared to our conventional row crops.

The calendar may now say we are in the month of May, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way with the weather and with planting progress across Iowa.

This summer, I am starting a couple of new research projects looking at cover crop pest activity that might be relevant to corn production. Shout out to Alison Robertson and Mark Licht for including me on these massive research projects! The usual cover crop pest suspects are migratory moths, like black cutworm and true armyworm, that make their way to Iowa every spring. There isn’t much green around in March and April, so female moths like to lay eggs on early-season weeds and cereal rye.

Last week planters made progress across portions of Iowa. Rains this weekend and the forecast for the coming week indicate planting will be at a standstill this week. In light of the weekend weather, soil temperatures quickly fell below 50^oF. What does this mean for corn and soybean already planted?

Like #Plant18, #Plant19 seems to be off to a slow start. Approximately 21% of the expected corn crop and 3% of the soybean crop in Iowa has been planted according to the April 29 Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report. Planting progress does vary across the state. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach field agronomists share reports on what they are seeing and hearing in their respective regions across the state with field conditions and planting progress.